1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to processing and/or expressor chambers for a material processing device, and more particularly to a flexible processing/expressor chamber/bag for a biological material, centrifugal processing device.
2. Background of the Invention
Flexible processing chambers (e.g., bags) for processing biological cells in a fixed volume centrifuge, and methods for use of such processing bags, e.g., by centrifugation, are known. For example, PCT patent application PCT/US98/10406 describes a flexible cell processing chamber having a rotating seal to keep the contents of the chamber sterile during processing. Flexible processing chambers advantageously are disposable and thus suitable for single-use sterile applications.
For certain applications, such as blood processing including blood component separation, enzymatic conversion of blood type, and pathogen inactivation of blood components, multiple units of material (e.g., blood) are processed at a time, in a single instrument under the same conditions. Co-pending, and jointly assigned U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/970,547, discloses simultaneous processing of multiple processing chambers/bags which reduce the time and expense required to perform separation and conversion using only a single bag.